Government to set up an agricultural bank - Museveni

Oct 11, 2020

Museveni said the main hindering factors to the pace of Uganda’s prosperity include the high-interest rates charged commercial banks in Uganda.

The Government is planning to set up an agricultural bank to give affordable capital to the farmers who have been shunned by commercial banks, President Yoweri Museveni has said.

The President was speaking at  the 58th Independence Day celebrations at State House Entebbe.

"We are thinking of setting up an agricultural bank because commercial banks are commercial banks like their name says. They are there to fund traders who go to China, import, sell the goods quickly and make money," Museveni said.

"They are not here to give patient loans to agriculture and industry where the gestation period is a long one. We want funding which will give our people time. Uganda Development Bank is there, we refused to privatise it, but we may also have to have a specialised bank for agriculture, may be owned together with the farmers themselves. This bank will operate on the principles of giving affordable capital to our people."

Museveni said the main hindering factors to the pace of Uganda's prosperity include the high-interest rates charged commercial banks in Uganda.

To address this, President Museveni said the government has increased the capitalisation of the Uganda Development Bank (UDB) with sh1.1 trillion this fiscal year.

Museveni also said the other challenge the country was facing was the high cost of electricity for which the government is working to complete the transmission lines that will evacuate power from Karuma Dam to the manufacturing hubs inland.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});